She’s the better half of the Kyle and Jackie O radio show. She’s also a recovering addict: a fact she kept close to her chest until this week.
Jackie Henderson struggles to pinpoint her first slip on the slide into addiction, but it was probably seven years ago. Back when her marriage was breaking down. When a glass of white wine wasn’t quite enough relief from the sadness or stress of the day, and a few Nurofen Plus seemed an easy added release or retreat. The specifics blur.
Henderson, now 49, became a hermit, recording her radio show remotely each morning from a makeshift studio upstairs, before returning to her chemical comforts. When friends began noticing her blackout forgetfulness – “Jackie, we talked about that last night, remember?” – she covered her tracks by scrawling real-time Post-it Note reminders of phone conversations.
Henderson’s mother, Julie Last, had no luck breaking through, either. She had no idea her daughter was addicted to medication, and was more concerned by the binge-drinking she saw when visiting from her home on the Gold Coast. Her happy, empathetic girl seemed to turn so stormy whenever her lifestyle was raised. “She would shut you off: ‘Mum! Let’s just have a good time while you’re here,’ ” says Last, 78. “Every time I would bring it up, she would bite my head off. It just wasn’t her.
The full cloak-and-dagger operation was complete when they flew to the US undetected, Henderson disguised in baggy clothes, hat and face mask. She still misses it sometimes, like those buzzy moments on holiday when the champagne comes out to start the night –“I would have leaned on that, using alcohol as my form of escape instead of pills,” she says. “I just knew that it had to be all or nothing for me.”
Timing helped. Henderson only missed three weeks on air because the show was due for its six-week summer break, minimising tabloid curiosity. Her dramatic weight loss was explained by new healthy eating habits, swimming at Clovelly, cycling on a high-tech Peloton exercise bike and playing tennis. Others just assumed she was taking Ozempic.
calling to apologise to Magda Szubanski after Sandilands made a joke about the Jewish-Australian comedian’s waistline Henderson likens broadcasting with Kyle Sandilands at times to wincing at a drunk husband holding court at a party. To Henderson’s mind, speaking out is about helping people; letting them know they aren’t alone, motivating them to seek help and change their life. “And the downside – the negative opinions and the stigma that will come with sharing this – I honestly don’t care,” she says. “If you’re a hater and this makes your opinion of me lower, I’m OK with that. I really am.
Henderson is single now, but not for lack of trying. With her health intact and vitality restored, she re-entered the dating world last year, unashamedly looking for love. There was the landscaper from Cronulla and the architect from the northern beaches. There was the ex-athlete and the actor. There was the guy who spat in her mouth without warning during sex, and the one who cooked dinner for her while naked, thinking his bare arse in an apron would be a sexy surprise.
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